There is a moment before springtime springs into life, that brief pause before the leaves turn the trees green, before the flowers pop open in full bloom. This is where we find our farm this week. It's as if every living thing here has something inside of it waiting to burst forth. Like Martha, for instance.......
It is still somewhat of a guessing game as to whether or not she is with piglets, or just extra curvy. But she is massive, and we are hopeful that this time with George worked!
Our Barred Rock sustainable flock increased again this week with new baby chicks hatching. I was able to move two of those wooden boxes that we got with our pallets into the garage and setup a nice brooding operation for this whole process. We will begin selling laying hens later this summer, and harvesting the oldest birds then, too, for meat.
The seedlings continue to do well in the greenhouse......
And I just can't get these pallet raised beds built fast enough. I've spent hours and hours ripping them apart. I've got a pretty good method for taking them apart, but my table saw broke today, so I built a new one out of the old hand saw I refurbished a couple years ago to get the job done, and it's actually working out pretty well.
There's an old saying that says the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time to plant a tree is now. So this week we planted pine trees to start the Christmas tree farm I've been dreaming of since we moved out to this farm. We picked them up at our county's conservation district tree sale. That is the cheapest way for us to buy trees and I'd highly suggest you check out your local conservation district to see if something similar is available near you. We planted raspberry bushes, grapevines, and a big ol' blueberry bush. I've got three new apple trees to plant tomorrow. Adding them will bring our small orchard total to ten fruit trees.
The dairy herd is also preparing to burst at the seams, with all six females pregnant. And I mean VERY PREGNANT. Poor Penelope, she rarely gets up anymore.
It's good to pause and look back on the week, and be grateful for all the new growth that springtime brings to the farm.
Until next week, have a good one!
